Geelong midfielder Brad Hartman will step away from the game and return home to South Australia indefinitely as he works through off-field issues.

Hartman and his parents recently met with Geelong’s General Manager of Football, Steve Hocking and Player Development Manager, David Johnson to discuss his future.

“Brad and his parents, Shirley and Rick, Dave Johnson and myself have met in the last 24 hours and Brad has approached us and requested time out of our program,” Hocking said.

“We’ve been supportive of that, we’ve worked through that. At this point in time that will be an indefinite period of time and everyone is comfortable with the fact that we’ve reached that decision.”

Hartman will return to his hometown of Murray Bridge in South Australia tomorrow and undertake labouring work and continue a training program provided by the club.

 “It’s something that we’ve been working through with Brad, not just over the last couple of weeks, you never get to this point overnight,” Hocking said.

“There have been some behavioural issues over time that we’ve encountered with Brad. One of the difficulties for Brad is he suffers from homesickness, that’s one of the reasons why he’s asked for time out of the program.

“He believes that he can head home and have family support around him with his parents and we understand that and acknowledge that’s the case.

“From here what we need to do is make sure he’s getting the right support from a psychologist. He’s been seeing someone here within the region and we’ll make sure he’s got that support over in Adelaide as well,” Hocking said.

Player Development Manager David Johnson will be in regular contact with Hartman including plans for Johnson to fly to South Australia periodically.